Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley” Essay

Robert Walton writes numerous letters to his sister, who is presently in England about his endeavors at the North Pole. He is currently stuck as the water has since been overridden by ice, making it impossible for him and his crew to continue his dangerous mission. Although his progress was positive at the beginning, he is now unable to move forward because of the ice. It is during this period that the captain meets with Victor, who has been weakened by the ice and is almost dead of cold. Walton the nurses Victor back to health, and hears the tale about the monster that victor has created. Victor, who is a brilliant man, has discovered the secret of life itself and had consequently created his own monster, but as a result of his actions, he fears that the monster will ruin the lives of the people he cares about as well as his. Character Development, Victor, his Father and the Monster                   At the beginning, Victor is an innocent loving boy who is full of life and surrounded by loved ones. As a young boy, he lives with his father, plays with his brother and friend and also loves his future wife Elizabeth. The turn of events occurs when victor’s brilliance in chemistry and his curiosity about life forces him to reanimate a dead body. Throughout the novel, victor changes step by step and the grief he encounters due to the loss of loved ones fuel his heart with hate and remorse. From a young scientist filled with prospects of great future to a guilt-ridden man filled with anger and revenge. As a young boy, victor spent his youth in Geneva. His life as a young person was fulfilling with the loving accompany of his loving sister Elizabeth and his best friend Henry. Upon being of age, Victor enrolls at the University of Ingolstadt, where he studies chemistry and natural philosophy. Being a curios and brilliant person, he is overwhelmed by the unknown knowledge of life and, therefore, revolts his life to finding the true origin of life. Victor then spends his whole time in research with the hope to discover the secret of life. After many years of research, he is able to discover the basics of life. According to (Janowitz and William 938), Victor’s ambition to create life blinds the moral obligations that he should have felt about creating a monster without human emotion and characteristics. Notable, Victor does not evaluate the consequences that might arise as a result of his action. He just spends time creating a creature with the knowledge that he has gained. He uses dead parts of a human body to put together the creature and reanimates him later. The creature, however, does not look as appealing as he expected. The sight of him fills Victor with horror and disgust. Victor is disappointed with his work and becomes contemptuous of the creature. With the creature trying to understand the meaning of the behavior being exhibited by his creator, victor becomes more afraid and runs from him scared and remorseful. According to Vargo (417) the use of dead parts to create a living thing sheds message that the expected creation would not behavior like a normal person. Victor should have recognized that his endeavor would only lead to more death. After creation of the monster, he feels remorseful and decides to return home. Woolley (46) observes that his wish to return home would maybe reconnect him after losing touch with humanity. So, he decides that since the monster has disappeared, he should also return to his family to nurse his remorse and poor health back to normal. However, victor receives an unexpected letter from his father explaining that his brother has been murdered. Victor now rushes home, remorseful as ever to support his family at this moment of grief. As he is about to arrive, he sees the monster he created looming the woods where is brother was killed. With this knowledge, Victor believes that the monster must have killed him. To make matters worse, Victor arrives to find that his adopted sister, a gentle and kind person, is being accused of the crime that his monster dis. She is consequently executed although Victor knows the real murderer. Victor now grows more remorseful and guilty for his actions becaus e he knows that his actions have led t the death of two of his beloved ones. According to 5865, this is the point where Victor begins to get sense of the consequences of his actions. He created death, so death follows him. Levine (490) notes that people tend to run away from their actions’ outcomes after they see that they are not desirable. Instead of dealing with the situation, Victor grief overpowers him and he is unable to withstand the sorrow at his home at Geneva. He decides that it is best to stay away from home by taking a vacation in the mountains; since he knows that the monster is probably tracking him; he knows that by staying away from home the monster would also follow him, and leave the family alone. While at the mountains, the monster approaches Victor and tries to beg for attention. It is evident that the monster is disappointed by the fact that Victor left it after creation. He admits to killing Victor’s brother, and asks that Victor understand his reasons. He says that the death of Victor’s brother William was a payback for leaving him to rot. With this, he asks victor to create another one like him so that he can be happy around someone who understood him, and w ho would not abandon him like Victor did. He says; â€Å"‘I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create'† (Shelley and Maurice 129). His action of acting god, which is pure inhumanness, haunts him from the moment he creates the monster. His obsession to act as a creator finally ruins his life as well as the lives of the people that he cares about. Eventually, Victor changes from a human with feelings to become a person without feelings just as the creature that he created. The basics of human feeling are family and friends. The monster, seeing that victor does not care about him, sought to make him like he is, in an effort to make Victor understand the situation of being in solitude. With this, Victor falls for the monsters please and weighs the odds of creating a second monster, and refuses to grant the creature his wish to have a companion. However, the monster pleads and persuades him until he agrees to make the second, female monster to act as a companion to the first monster. He takes his friend Henry and return to England to prepare the necessary materials and information required for the creation of the female monster. Victor starts the work at a secluded island in company of the monster and is almost done when he feels that his actions are against moral expectations. He, therefore, destroys his progress attracting an outrage from the monster who in turn vows to destroy everything he loves. He even swears to kill Victor’s lover during his wedding night. In this, it is evident that Victor realized and regained his moral ground way too late. At this point, he will have to endure consequences for his actions (Vargo 419). The fist revenge the monster has on victor is killing of his best friend, Henry. When Victor travels to dump the remains of the second monster, He returns in the morning only to be arrested and accused of murdering his own friend. This occurrence finally drives victor to the edge. Losing his humanity is the only thing preventing Victor from becoming the monster he has created (Choice Reviews Online 32). He realizes that Henry was killed by the monster after the fallout they had the previous day. Although he denies having killed his friend, Victor is imprisoned for the time being as investigations are conducted. Overcome by grief of losing the people that he loved the most due to the consequences of his actions, Victor falls sick in the prisons where he is nursed back to health and acquitted. At this point, Victor returns with his father to Geneva, and marries the woman he loves, Elizabeth. (Woolley 50) notes that Elizabeth and Victor’s father are the only things holding him from truly becoming a monster. The monster knows that killing Victor wife would bring them closer. However, although he still remembers the words of the monster about visiting him on his wedding night and sends his bride away to avoid a confrontation. Despite this, the monster catches up with Elizabeth and kills her. At this point, Victor’s father, who has lost many people as well is unable to overcome his grief and dies shortly after the death of Elizabeth. Having lost his wife, his brother, his sister, his father and also his friend to the monster, he vows that it is time to exact revenge. Victor’s father, who was his source of comfort, is now dead, and so are his advices and encouragement. The hunter becomes the hunted as he runs from Victor, who is now murderous after losing his family and friends to the monster. Victor has not undergone a complete metamorphosis and turned into a monster. With no family, friends or siblings, Victor is now as lonely as the monster. The grief, anger, pain and remorse have now exhausted his feeling and behavior of a human being. At one point he almost gets to him but the monster is saved by the sea as the ice cracks and separates them with a gap. At this point, Victor is found by the captain Walton, as he travels through the ice and is almost dead of cold. This story, as the writer intends, enables the reader to have multiple interpretations of the actions of Victor. With these, the reader can decide either to think that Victor was a mad scientist, who crossed human boundaries without concern or an adventurer who lack responsibility of his actions. Either way, the reader can related to the process of Victor turning into his own creation. When Walton meets Victor, he is weak and almost dead of cold for travelling many days in the ice. Unlike the monster, he is human and unable to endure the cold. Walton tries his best to nurse Victor but later he succumbs to death. Walton, having heard the stories of the monster’s cruel acts is astonished to find him weeping over Victor’s body. He tells Walton that now that Victor is dead, he has no one else in this world. He recounts is suffering, remorse, solitude and hatred and concludes that he can now die as his creator has. At this point, he departs to the northernmost cold region to die. It is at this point that the reader finally experiences the solitude of the creature. The creature is Victor’s creation, gathered from old body parts and weird chemicals, energized by a puzzling flash. He enters life as a grown up and immensely strong yet with the psyche of an infant. Relinquished by his maker and befuddled, he tries to bond himself into society, just to be disregarded by everyone. Looking in the mirror, he understands his physical bizarreness, a part of his being that blinds world to his delicate, innocent nature. He mentions that; â€Å"‘When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?'† (Shelley and Maurice 105 Looking for reprisal on his maker, he executes Victor’s youthful sibling. After Victor wrecks his work on the female beast intended to facilitate the creature’s acceptance to the society, the beast murders Victor’s closest companion and afterward his wife Elizabeth. While Victor feels great disdain for his creation, the beast demonstrates that he is not a malicious being. The creature’s articulate portrayal of occasions (as given by Victor) uncovers his surprising affection and kindheartedness. He helps a gathering of poor laborers and saves a young lady from drowning, but since of his outward appearance, he is remunerated just with beatings and disdain; torn in the middle of vindictiveness and empathy, the beast winds up forlorn and tormented by regret. Indeed the demise of his inventor turned-would-be-destroyer offers just ambivalent alleviation: delight on the grounds that Victor has created him so much enduring, trouble on the grounds that Victor is the main individual with whom he has had any kind of relationship. Conclusion                   In conclusion, the characters of Victor and his father are different from that of the monster, which has no family and friends. The only person who understood his existence, his creator Victor turned his back on him after he created him. Victor realized that his actions were immoral and that he was not supposed to create a monster. The plot develops the character of both Victor and his father to align with that of the monster. With time, the monster ruins the life of Victor just as his suspected by killing his family and best friend. In the end, Victor is filled with hate, remorse and anger just like the monster and dies a bitter man. References Coats, Karen. â€Å"Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.† Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books: 113-14. Print. Janowitz, Anne F., and William Veeder. â€Å"Mary Shelley and Frankenstein: The Fate of Androgyny.† The Modern Language Review: 938. Print. Levine, George. â€Å"Mary Shelley: Collected Tales and Stories. Charles E. Robinson Mary Shelley’s Monster: The Story of â€Å"Frankenstein.† Martin Tropp.† Nineteenth-Century Fiction: 486-91. Print. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. Rev. ed. London: Penguin, 2003. Print. â€Å"The Other Mary Shelley: Beyond Frankenstein.† Choice Reviews Online (1994): 31-36. Print. Vargo, Lisa. â€Å"Mary Shelley Studies: From â€Å"Author of Frankenstein† To â€Å"the Great Work Of Life†Ã¢â‚¬  Literature Compass: 417-28. Print. Woolley, Rachel. â€Å"Syndy M. Conger, Frederick S. Frank, and Gregory O’Dea, Eds., Iconoclastic Departures: Mary Shelley After ‘Frankenstein’ – Essays in Honor of the Bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s Birth. Madison and London: Associated University Presses, 1997. ISBN: 0-8386-36.† Romanticism on the Net. Print. Source document

Economic development in low income countries Essay

It is no secret that despite the breakthroughs in international economic dynamics, development is still elusive to some of the world’s poorer countries. However, current trends indicate that some of these low income nations are actually faring much better than others. Countries like China, Vietnam, and India might be well on their way to economic prosperity. The purpose of this paper is to identify the current aspects that affect economic progress and identify existing trends within those aspects. This paper gauges the sensitivity of low income countries to such trends. In particular, this paper discusses the aspects of globalization and education; the parts that each of these aspects play in determining the economic fate of low income countries. In the continuing rise of globalization, lines that have previously separated nations are now being blurred. The advent of free trade a few decades passed has increased not only economic, but cultural interactions among countries worldwide. These developments preview a globalized perspective of the economy, where the concept of nation as an economic barrier because of tariffs and trade regulations may no longer apply. If we look at how low income countries fare in the light of a globalizing world market, there are varied effects that can be observed. The influx of multinational corporations into countries of the third world brought about by the prospect of more affordable labor boosts employment rates and strengthens these countries’ current economic standing. Countries like India, Vietnam, and the Philippines currently thrive on jobs provided by various outsourcing corporations from the United States and Europe. On the other hand, some countries tend to suffer trade abuse from countries with stronger markets when it comes to the lowering of trade barriers. Without trade barriers on foreign products, the local companies of poorer countries find it much harder to compete with their foreign counterparts. The larger companies obviously have greater capital and can afford to lower prices much more than local smaller companies. On the other hand despite the lowering of tariffs in the countries where larger companies are based, smaller companies from other countries who want to enter into those markets still have a hard time. A good example of this can be seen in the case of China and the Philippines. China’s booming economy exported goods worth over $18. 6 million into the Philippines in 2005 while the Philippines was only able to export $2. 3 million (Rogers, 2006). Clearly, smaller companies in the Philippines are sorely outclassed by Chinese capital and cheap labor. China has is in fact making remarkable market headway in the international arena despite the prevailing low average income per annum of U. S. $2,040. With regards to direct investment, smaller companies yet find themselves outgunned once more by their larger competitors. Direct investment allows large companies to infiltrate chap labor markets where smaller companies operate. They are able to offer higher wages to workers from smaller companies owing largely to wide differences in capital which is boosted more by differences in foreign currencies. On the other hand, smaller companies neither have the ability nor the need to expand their workforce and operations into other countries. Foreign direct investment is not only useless to them, but it also creates an avenue for their workers to be pirated by larger foreign companies. Therefore it can be concluded that globalization is value neutral when it comes improving the economy of low income countries. Both India and the Philippines experienced long colonized rule which resulted to staggering economies in both cases. Yet after their freedom from their respective conquerors, the economics as well as other aspects of advancement in either country took different turns. Economically, India lagged behind the Philippines for many years proceeding World War II, but India’s investment in education eventually paid off. The Indian government sets aside as much as 55% of the national budget for the development of basic and tertiary education from since 1968 (Basham, 2005). The Philippines also allocates considerable budget in education but rampant corruption in the country prevents any authentic development from occurring. As a result, the country fared consistently low in successive Trends in Mathematics and Science Studies examinations conducted in 1999 and 2004 (Basham, 2005). The trends brought about by education reflect the quality of labor that a country has to offer and consequentially, the strength of its economy. While outsourcing western companies still obtain services from the Philippines for their call centers and medical transcription needs, they go to India for specialized and technological professional services. Therefore it can be concluded that advances in education equate to advances in a country’s economy. It also holds true that countries that make considerable genuine investments in their education system develop a citizenry that fares relatively better in the international job market than countries who do not. In conclusion, there are indeed varying rates of economic development present in low income countries. These rates are partly dictated by trends in globalization and in education. It is imperative for less developed countries to take heed of their neighboring countries’ actions and follow suit, or risk being left behind by a rapidly evolving world economy.

Differences and Similiraties Between Dickens and Hardy Essay

Dickens was born in Portsea, in 12. His father, John Dickens, was a kind and likeable man, but incompetent with money, and due to his financial difficulties they moved to Camden when Dickens was nine. When Charles was twelve his father was arrested and taken to the debtors’ prison in Southwark. He started working at Warren’s blacking-warehouse and its strenuous working conditions made an impression on him, later influencing his fiction. He became interested in writing (and acting) and, after having learnt shorthand in his spare time, he began working as a freelance reporter at the Parliament and the Old Bailey. Under the nom de plume Boz he published the eponymous Sketches (36), a collection of short pieces concerning London scenes and people. In 36 he married Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a fellow editor, yet this union proved to be an unhappy one and, though she bore him ten children, he decided to separate from her after 22 years, having fallen in love with an 1 8-year-old actress, Ellen Ternan. This fact often constituted a reason of doubt, regret and depression for his Victorian frame of mind. The Sketches were immediately followed by the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, a publication in installments which confirmed his success as a humorist and satirist. His rise to fame continued with Oliver Twist (38), David Copperfield (49-50), Little Dorrit (57), all influenced by his childhood memories (he purportedly had a near-photographic memory), and his journalistic career. By means of subtle irony, he denounced the exploitation of children in the slums and factories. His later novels Bleak House (53), Hard times (54) and Great Expectations (60-1) revolve around various social issues, emphasizing the difficult condition of the working class and the poor. Throughout his life he edited several newspapers and magazines, e.g. Household Words or All The Year Round, which hosted serializations of many prominent novels. His last years were marked by numerous reading tours, even in America, and the foundation of charities to help the poor. After his death in 70 his remains were b uried in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Above all, Dickens was a storyteller, as he was influenced by the Bible, fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes as well as 18th-century essayists and Gothic novelists. His novels have been praised – from Tolstoj to Orwell – for their realism and good story planning. On the other hand, Wilde and Virginia Woolf complained of their episodic nature and artificial vein of saccharine sentimentalism. Of course the publication in monthly or weekly installments imposed strict terms, preventing unified plotting and creating pressure on Dickens to suit the taste of the audience. Most of his novels are set in London, a city he knew well and of which he gave vivid and realistic sketches. In Dickens’s first works, his characters are taken from the bourgeoisie, although often satirized, whereas in the latter novels he presents a more radical point of view on society, still without being a revolutionary thinker. His awareness of the increasing spiritual and material corruption as a consequence of industrialization made him more and more critical of society. His mature works managed to draw popular attention to public abuses, evils and injustices by means of the juxtapositions of terrible descriptions of London desolation and crime and hilarious sketches of the city. He created caricatures by exaggerating and ridiculing the distinctive social characteristics of the middle, lower and lowest classes in their own voices and conversations. His female characters are feeble, and either completely good or irrecoverably evil (a black-and-white morality possibly derived from his difficult relation with his mother). He sympathizes with the poor and the outcast: he shifts the perspective from the upper middle-class world of 18th-century fiction to the life of the lower orders and the working class. Children are often the most relevant characters in his works, a means to fictionally invert the natural or der of things, as their good-natured personality makes them more likely to be the moral teachers than the pupils of the adults (either into insignificant parents or hypocritical grown-ups), the exempla than the imitators. He succeeds not only in making his readers sympathize with the children, but also in proposing them as models of the correct way people should behave to one another. His aim lies in teaching a moral lesson to the reader. To accomplish this he uses the most effective language, i.e. a careful selection of adjectives, lexical and syntactical repetitions, juxtapositions of images and ideas and hyperbolic and ironic comments, thus achieving the most vivid depictions of life and character ever attempted by any novelist. In Coketown, a fictitious industrial town, Thomas Gradgrind, an educator firmly believing in facts and figures, has founded a school based on the suppression of imagination and feelings, the same theories by which he raises his children Louisa and Tom. His daughter is compelled to marry Josiah Bounderby, a wealthy banker thrice her age, and she accepts so that her brother can be apprenticed at Bounderby’s bank, yet the marriage proves to be unhappy. Tom, grown up to be dissipated and self-interested, robs his employer, initially managing to make everyone suspect an honest laborer, Stephen Blackpool , then discovered and snuck out of the country by his sister. Hard Times is composed of three books of three chapters each: Sowing, about the seeds planted by means of the Gradgrind/Bounderby method, Reaping, showing which fruit the plants have borne (Luisa’s unfortunate marriage, Tom’s dishonesty/hedonism which leads to Stephen’s framing) and Garnering, disclosing further details. Hard times revolves around the dichotomy in Dickens’s age between the rich and the poor. The Hands are forced to work interminable shifts for terrible wages in squalid and dangerous factories, with no hope of improving their living or working conditions due to their lack of education and job skills. Through his characters and stories he denounces this gap, thus criticizing the money-oriented and narrow-minded nature of Utilitaria nism, the prevalent approach to economics in Victorian England, which, according to Dickens was transforming humans into machines by forbidding the development of any form of emotion or imagination. In fact, Gradgrind indoctrinates the children of the school, as well as his own, into his system of facts, whereas Bounderby considers his laborers nothing more than emotionless objects to be exploited at his own liking. Mr. Gradgrind argues that nature is a measurable, quantifiable entity entirely dominated by rational principles, and strives to transform the pupils of his school into little machines unquestioningly following these rules. Dickens’s objective lies in showing how dangerous allowing the â€Å"mechanization† of humans can be, hinting that with no compassion and imagination life would be unendurable. The extract is centered on the description of the Victorian industrial Coketown, a fictitious Northern-English mill-town whose name, the town of coke (coke being a fuel derived from the distillation of coal) is meaningful as it hints at the contribution of industrial pollution to the blackening of buildings. This town is an unpleasant place, where everything is a triumph of fact (all fact, workful): it is not only polluted, as demonstrated by â€Å"the unnatural red and black† and the â€Å"river than ran purple with ill-smelling dye†, but also noisy, due to the never-ending â€Å"rattling and trembling† of the steam-engine (one of the symbols of industrialization). Dickens employs metaphors and similes connected with nature, yet they all have negative and unsettling undertones, as the savage is war-donned, the serpents never-uncoiling, the elephant in â€Å"melancholy madness† (i.e. in musth). Therefore life in Coketown is not only marked by unpleasant alienation as well as by a fundamental opposition to the laws of nature and common sense. The whole place is monotonous as not only the streets are very similar to one another, but also the people, synchronized in all their activities. Even public buildings are standardized, looking like factories with â€Å"no taint of fancy† as artistic expression is contrary to Utilitarianism. Dickens was an important denouncer of the vices and injustices of Victorian England, employing fiction as a means to condemn public evils and abuses. He drew popular attention to the cruelty of some schools, to the squalid misery of London slums and its criminal underworld by means of his social/humanitaria n novels. He greatly influenced the contemporary reform movement, yet he was not a revolutionary per se, as he never questioned the pre-constituted order of his time, as noted by Orwell. He advocated a change not in the whole society but in the single individual, who is the real target of his moral, not political or revolutionary, message. He argued that if men behaved decently, the world would be decent, and made good win over evil in his novels as a sign of his fundamental optimism. Hardy was born of a humble family in Upper Bockhampton , a hamlet in Dorset, in 40. He became apprenticed to a local architect at sixteen and then moved to London. He read a lot, including the works of Comte, Mill, Darwin and Schopenhauer, who all influenced his novels, especially Schopenhauer, from whose The World as Will and Idea he adopted the notion of Immanent Will. His first success was Far from the Madding Crowd, published in installments throughout 74. His fame increased even further with a series of tragic novels: the Mayor of Casterbridge (86), the Woodlanders (87), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (91) and Jude the Obscure (95). The last book caused an outrage due to its nihi lism and immorality: dubbed Jude the Obscene by some, it was publicly burnt by the bishop of Wakefield. Its negative reception induced Hardy to turn his efforts exclusively to poetry. After his death in 28 his ashes were buried in the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Hardy’s characters are defined through their surroundings. His works are set in Wessex, a semi-fictional county in South West England corresponding to Dorset based on the eponymous Saxon medieval reign (as stated in the Preface to Far from the Madding Crowd). Being an architect, he had an exceptional sense of place, which allowed him to describe medieval ruins as well as important landmarks like Stonehenge or the college of Oxford. His early life in Dorset granted him with an extensive knowledge of the folk traditions connected with country gatherings or fairs. In his novels the rural group assumes a role similar to that of ancient Greek choruses, commenting on the actions of the character, either to provide the reader with an interpretation or a form of light relief. In the village of Marlott, the poor pe ddler John Durbeyfield is stunned to discover that he is descended from the D’Urbevilles, a once-wealthy aristocratic Norman family now extinct. The difficult conditions of his family worsen after the death of their horse caused by their eldest daughter Tess, who consequently agrees to go to the D’Urberville estate and â€Å"claim kin† (unaware of its non-existence). She gets a position as a poultry maid thanks to Alec, the mistress’s lascivious son who constantly makes undesired advances on her. He eventually takes advantage of her after a fair. She returns home and gives birth to a sickly child, who is christened Sorrow just before his death. After a year she seeks employment far from her past, i.e. in a distant valley, becoming a milkmaid at the Thalbothays Dairy. There she re-encounters Angel, a reverend’s son apprenticing as a farmer. They fall in love, yet Tess is uncertain whether to reveal him her past and resolves to slip a confessional letter under his door, which unfortunately ends under the carpet. The marriage goes smoothly nevertheless when on their wedding night they confess each oth er their past Angel is struck dumb, and resolves to leave her, boarding a ship for Brazil. Tess experiences many sufferings and difficulties and is obliged to accept a job at an hardscrabble farm. During a walk she overhears a wandering preacher who turns out to be none else than Alec, converted to Methodism by Reverend Clare. Tess eventually accepts his proposal to support her family after her father’s death. However, Angel returns from Brazil and seeks Tess to ask her forgiveness, but she stoically refuses. Heartbroken to the point of madness, she stabs Alec to death and flees to Angel. She is arrested at Stonehenge, where she felt asleep on a large rock, and is eventually executed. He is the most important pessimistic novelist of late Victorian England due to many reasons: first of all, he was born in the Hungry 40s, a period in which the price of bread was kept high by the Corn laws and many people starved to death; secondly his first marriage was an unhappy, childless one, though he felt remorseful after his wife’s death; lastly he was influenced by Darw in and his vision of life as a never-ending struggle for the survival of the fittest as well as by Schopenhauer ‘s universe governed by the blind â€Å"Immanent will†, and he started to put into discussion his religious faith. Furthermore, he was profoundly touched by the collapse of the rustic world, which he loved and experienced first-handedly since his birth. In fact his county, Dorsetshire, in South West England, was suffering from the consequences of the mechanization of agriculture, the severe economic crises of the 70s and the mass-migration to the towns. Hardy argues that life is a struggle for survival against wicked impersonal powers. Love is a destructive natural instinct. In fact man is in thrall to fate, i.e. an impersonal unforeseeable entity governing over both the inside and outside of man (personality and surroundings). Therefore human life is nothing but a useless, excruciating struggle with destiny, also known as Immanent will as per his reading of Arthur Schopenhauer . It is a kind of Anti-Providence, an unstoppable apparatus operating through a series of unfortunate coincidences. According to Hardy, the universe is at the mercy of Chance, blindfolded casualness either unconcerned or antagonistic to man. As a matter of fact, in Tess this malignant power amuses itself by tormenting her to death. â€Å"Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess†. Tess, and, more generally, man, is a marionette in the hands of Chance, a worthless varmint in the universe. Tess is fated to sorrow and death from the very moment she came into being. There are three important themes in his works: the difficulty of being alive; nature, unaffected by man’s fate yet co-protagonist with him; Victorian hypocrisy, which is criticized as well as conventional moralism, in particular as far as women are concerned: in fact Tess, a falling woman as per Victorian morals, is presented as a pure, guiltless vict im of chance and her love interests. His language is measured, abundant in details and symbolism. The metaphors, similes and personifications he employs reflect his love for nature. The language of sense impressions is central to his writing, as objects are perceived through touch, sight, sound and smell. Though his novels were composed during a period of literary experimentation, he persevered in employing the Victorian omniscient narrator, who is always present, sometimes commenting on the characters or events by expressing his opinions and view on life. Furthermore, he anticipates the cinema in that he employs narrative techniques alike to the camera eye and the zoom (e.g. in Far from the madding crowd).

An Overall Analysis of Various Aspects of Islam Research Paper - 1

An Overall Analysis of Various Aspects of Islam - Research Paper Example Unlike Islam as a set of beliefs Hinduism is a collection of different intellectual or idealistic points of view, as Gavin Flood says in this regard that it does not have "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed" (Flood 34). In spite of Hinduism’s numerous traditions and versions including Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Srauta, a common philosophy of Hinduism is founded on the concepts of â€Å"karma, dharma, and societal norms† (Georgis 62) The Islamic faith in the oneness of God fundamentally originates from the Holy book, Quran, which the Muslim believes to be direct revelation or guidance of God descended upon Prophet Muhammad. Etymological Roots of Islam and Hinduism The term â€Å"Islam† derives from the root ‘salaam’ or ‘s-l-m’, where the term â€Å"Hindu† has its root in the word ‘Sindhu’ a local Sanskrit appellation, of the Indus River. Indeed the word, â€Å"Hindu† was incorpora ted in English from the Arabic term â€Å"Al Hind† used to refer to the Indian Subcontinent and the people living in this area. Later the term â€Å"Al-Hind† gets changed into Persian articulation as ‘Hindu’. On the other hand, the etymological root of Islam literally means ‘wholeness and completion’. But a number of other Islamic scholars consent that Islam as a religion has a broader meaning, â€Å"submission to the will of God†. ... But drawing references to the textual evidences in the holy Quran, scholars claim that Islam begins from the birth of Adam, the first man and prophet of Islam. In this way, Abrahamic religions are supposed to be the ancient versions, of Islam, which God Himself annulled because the distortions of His message brought about man. (Nasr 45) But other scholars believe that since God has repealed other religions as well as other versions such as Christianity (the religion preached by Zesu, a prophet of high respect in Islam), Judaism (preached by Moses, another revered prophet) and other religions, the real Islam for modern people is to be considered the one that Muhammad founded in the Seventh Century in Arab peninsula. Unlike Islam’s self-acclamation about its origin in Adam’s the first man’s age, the religious texts o Hinduism do not verify its origin. Rather anthropological researches show that the origin of Hinduism in India dates back to a period between 5500BCE and 2600BCE, commonly known as the late Neolithic age (Thapar 77). Indeed from this period up 500BCE Hinduism prevails as a Vedic religion depending on the religious texts called Vedas. The Vedas is a collection of several versions, of which the Oldest is the Rig Veda. The Vedas advocates the worship of gods such as Agni, Indra, and Varuna. This Vedic religion had undergone lots of changes over the century before the modern Hinduism emerged after the Muslim conquest of India in the early seventh century. Along the protracted path of addition, inclusion and reduction, the early first century texts Ramayana and Mahabharata began to be influential in this religion. Beliefs in

Governance and Public Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Governance and Public Policy - Essay Example As good governance, there is a marriage of the new public management with liberal democracy. As a socio-cybernetic system, it refers to the interdependence of socio-political-administrative actors. And finally as a self-organizing network, it refers to networks seeking to establish their own policies and manage their environments (Rhodes, 1997). Other authors emphasize different points relating to governance. Farazmand (2004) highlights the international element of governance, including the fact that effective governance is value-laden. Lowndes and Skelcher (1998) have an actor view of governance with various elements of governance relating to the outcomes of social processes, ensuring that the means by which actors relate to each other is founded on reality. Frederickson and Smith (2003), on the other hand seeks to view governance as an attempt to understand the institutional interactions in administration. All of the definitions support the fact that governance refers to more than the actions which governments do to accomplish their tasks. Governance in other words relates to the interactions between the public sector and the society as a whole in the management of public issues and problems. Rhodes’ (1997) definitions of governance also include other kinds of relations, including hierarchical and market-style relations. Strong arguments against the narrow perspective of governance are made by Schuppert (2007) who argues that a narrow definition makes it difficult to include the generally more successful elements of governance, including hierarchical governing. As pointed out by Wolf (2007), what is more important is to consider the... This essay critically discusses the ways the word governance is used by Rhodes, mostly with reference to Judt and to various examples and conceptualizations. Initially, a discussion of concepts was established in this study, followed by a critical analysis of these concepts. Rhodes discusses how new applications of governance have emerged. He also evaluates the contributions of actors and institutions outside the central administrators to the general processes of governance. Theoretical contributions impact on conventional applications, which usually picture government to be strong and centralised executives, managing the unified state. Governance as defined and described by Rhodes refers to various elements, including transparency, accountability, new public management, good governance, socio-cybernetic applications, and self-organizing network. Other discussions on governance raised by Judt, who emphasizes the importance of adopting liberal principles of democracy in securing favou rable outcomes in governance. Governance lost its link with the traditional past, mostly because traditions have been considered backward, often holding back development for various states, including third world countries. Governance is also now based on the dynamic relations between the different political actors of the state, using resources which allow for transparency and accountability and the political actors, who include the engaged citizenry, working with the state and the governing authorities.

SAM 448 UNIT 4 ASSIGNMENT Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SAM 448 UNIT 4 - Assignment Example This paper attempts to outline and analyze the best tasks that should be applied in a historical event. An attorney in any sport event is crucial in management, planning and marketing of new events especially to outline risk management planning program. There are certain plans that a sports attorney can assist the company or an organization to succeed in a historical event that our organization is planning. Some of the tasks that are involved in the planning list may include aspects like, negotiation for contracts of the athletes, sponsorship deals, financial and taxation factors, television rights, insurance programs, and venue concessions. Each of the tasks described should have consideration on decisions that involve size, philosophy of control, and objectives of the event. It could be essential to divide the tasks to various groups to ensure that each category is properly managed. This means that subcontracting different tasks to various groups may be a desirable thing to do. Further, it is important to note that before any event is held, negotiations of various deals and issues m ust take place to ensure that responsibilities and various financial aspects are clearly outlined (Graham, Goldblatt and Neirotti, 2001). Before any sports event takes place, athletes must be engaged in negotiations of contracts to ensure that they are bound to such contract thus discipline and soberness when running the event can be experienced. Negotiation of contracts involves issues like salaries, terms of contract, date of beginning and expiry of the contract and remedies of breaching the contract. It is one of the most important task and activity in sports as it enables parties involved to run their organizations responsibly. Negotiations can involve experts or just the parties involved in the contract. Negotiation experts are usually involved to raise the bargaining power and ability of a certain party in the contract. Sponsorship deals are

Marketing trend (Internet and online marketing) Assignment

Marketing trend (Internet and online marketing) - Assignment Example It will also discuss how these online marketing trends effects on the consumer buying process and its relevant impacts. There are several online marketing trends in the business world. Some of the most common trends include deals and rewards, mobile push marketing, mobile pull marketing, proximity marketing, local online marketing, globalization and three-screen marketing among others (Caroline, 2004). The buying behavior of consumers is acknowledged as a contemporary topic in online marketing. This is because the e-marketers usually focus on the influence they have on their marketing efforts and web experience. Furthermore, the e-marketers are supposed to understand their role in shaping up the virtual experience of their customers (Caroline, 2004). Business experts point out that the most crucial step in online marketing involves the capability of having the maximum impact on the internet users. The buying process of the consumers is also described as a learning procedure which involves decision making and processing the required information. The internet has drastically affected and changed the buying process as numerous products continue to be advertized through the internet (Whitehead, 2009). Marketers should, therefore, try to understand the internet and how they might use it to their advantage to increase sells, as well as buying decisions. These days, a majority of consumers do not follow the customary purchasing route of going out to shop for their products (Whitehead, 2009). The purchasing route was a significant guideline to marketers on how to plan their proceedings. A purchasing channel was the trend for many years, and then came the internet. In the purchasing channel, consumers started with the potential brands and then singled down to the most the product with great quality. Back in the days, the purchasing channel sounded logical to both the marketers and consumers. It was a proper way of locating the product that a person

The growth of car industry in a developing country - CHINA, USA and UK Essay

The growth of car industry in a developing country - CHINA, USA and UK - Essay Example Two phases are Literature review and an original research. In original research, a questionnaire would help in supporting a few findings. Main focus of this research would be on the Literature Review that would actually help in 80% of the recommendations and findings. In the last, crux of all the findings would be discussed that would also identify the fuel influence so that to know if the petroleum is a restricted reserve and gasoline will perhaps develop into a very luxurious liveliness foundation. The assessment indicates the practicability of the UK car development in the sequential conditions and at in present creation forecasts about its prospective expansion trends. The literature review touches the comprehensive car industrialized industry to identify the causes of the decline in the United Kingdom car industry as well as the strengths and weaknesses of British car manufacturers. The methods for investigate are based on the examination of secondary data appropriate to the cla ssification of the trends in the UK automobile industrialized. Conclusions are made about the car-industrialized outputs in the UK and the anticipated ricochet in the production levels. Automotive production is the mounting at an unparalleled momentum in Asian district in the globe, mainly due to a saturating automotive manufacturing of a western world. China, India, & ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries are the main dynamic markets for Asian automotive trade. Asian Automotive Industry Outlook (2007 2011) testimony provides a purpose scrutiny on Asian Automotive industry to investigate the prospective opportunities and challenges faced by the production (Wire, 2008). The automotive trade designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the worlds motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, counting cars and profitable vehicles were fashioned global (OICA, 2007). In 2007, a entirety of 71.9 million innovative automobiles were sold

I will proved topic tomorrow Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

I will proved topic tomorrow - Essay Example Hobbes on the other hand, assumed that people are the same with regard to their mental and physical characteristics and that one is responsible for controlling personal behavior. In addition, he said that people differ in both physical and mental capability. For instance, another through mental skills can overpower an individual with physical strength. Therefore, people are guided by societal norms and guidance to be behaved morally upright. However, the two thinkers cannot be considered moral egoists. For instance, the meaning of pleasure contradicts with the definition of Epicurus. â€Å"Pleasure is every person’s first and kindred good, it is the starting point of every choice and of every aversion† the statement means that searching for pleasure and living a pleasant life occurs naturally. Every individual has a right to live a pleasant life. Therefore, the behavior of a person should be controlled and should not only fulfill personal pleasures but also respect other people happiness (Shaw & Barry, 2004, 18). Epicurus does not however receive entire judgment as being a free thinker that is not egoistic. It is important to understand the fact that many books have termed him egoistic and many contemporary philosophers. The fact that he states that all actions are ethical does not offer him full credit as being liberal. If people acted out of their own interests without caring about the fate of others, the world would not be a so comfortable place. This would lead to a world full of selfish acts where people consequently carry out their actions just to please one. For example, a person who takes up an activity knowing very well that the result would harm the neighbor or someone else and still carries on with it shows moral egoism. According to Epicurus, the state in which the human mind operates does not always allow him to have moral justification in the carrying out of several acts. It is basic ethics to understand that

Objective Toward Somali Immigrants In The Healthcare Setting Research Paper

Objective Toward Somali Immigrants In The Healthcare Setting - Research Paper Example These include prayer and fire-burning which entails applying a heated stick to the skin. According to Lewis, 1996, those immigrants exposed to modern medicine expect medication for every illness thus may be disappointed when nothing is prescribed. Additionally, they also put their trust in health professionals of the same sex and do not believe in preventive medicine. I believe that in as much as it aims to maintain their cultural heritage, the Somali should give up some of their beliefs and move into the modern day by embracing the technology of science and health. This opinion holds because some of the methods used by the Islam to treat their complications are crude and can end up affecting them even negatively. With their location in the U.S, they have accessibility to the modern methods of healthcare and this will even reduce the spread of certain diseases such as T.B. The Somali are more prone to this because in their culture it is customary for family and friends to eat with their hands from the same plate and drink from a shared cup, according to Putnam and Noor (1999). There are experiences with the Somalis who refuse to be treated for some treatments because of what they uphold in their culture. Somali hesitates to initiate TB treatment because they believe they must discontinue chewing ‘khat’ while undergoing treatment. However, United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) states that using the leafy narcotic may affect one’s ability to remember their medication. The family, community and the media enhance the beliefs in modern health by insisting on one seeking medication whenever they are unwell. The media has a key role of agenda-setting in the society and through this; they make their audience aware that adopting proper health practices is advisable. The church advises their members to visit health

Minimum wage essay Essay Example for Free

Minimum wage essay Essay Minimum wage has been a very controversial topic. Nowadays people just can’t survive on minimum wage. Prices are rising but yet the pay is still the same. How do they expect us to survive on eight dollars and twenty five cents? Minimum wage workers in Chicago land locations had joined others across the country for a one-day strike, which was held August 29, 2013 outside the ROCK N ROLL McDonalds in the River North neighborhood, demanding their wage to be at least . 00 an hour. There was a worker there named Tyree Johnson who said he has been working on McDonalds for a total of 21 years and still earning a total of eight dollars and twenty five cents an hour. He states â€Å"Every time I would ask for a raise they would just tell me you shouldn’t have joined that union, were not giving you any raise†. The workers who had gathered up there said that they were tired on choosing between paying the rent or paying the groceries. Another minimum wage worker named Dejun Jackson says it takes him three jobs to raise a family. He gets up at 4:30am to start his shift at 5:45am. He ends his first job around 1 O’clock and has to be in his second job around 1:15. He does not end his second shift until 9 or 9:30pm. He states he has no time to see his kids except the weekends for the same reason that he has two jobs. Between his two jobs he works a total of 70 hours a week. Within a year he makes an average of $50,000. Dejun Jackson is also in school hoping one day he would be able to work just one shift and spend more time with his family. But just by having just one job he wouldn’t be able to make it through since one job helps him pay the pills and the other the cost of his school. I agree that people cannot live on minimum wage since the cost of living has gone up drastically. This has always been a conflict and will continue to be unless they raise minimum wage. The type of life we are living now days won’t simply just get us through by working on minimum wage. People have things to pay for example rent, food transportation, clothes, bills; school etc. People that get pay minimum wage are usually on government assistance which means everybody who is paying taxes are actually paying for the food stamps or any type of services that they are receiving from the government. It would be better if the companies would just pay their workers a decent amount of salary instead of other people having to pay for whatever the company is not paying them. The authors’ argument is very logical since it states why people can’t survive on minimum wage. This makes people have two jobs just too sustain a family. People wouldn’t be able to make through just by having one job, since the cost of living has gone up drastically.

Animal Testing Controversy Essay Example for Free

Animal Testing Controversy Essay Each year, millions of animals suffer and die in the process of inhumane testing for the purposes of drug and chemical research, and medical experiments and training exercises. Animals including cats, dogs, rabbits, and mice are force fed harmful substances that are infected with lethal viruses causing reactions like brain damage, strokes, and heart attacks. Not only are these experiments painful to the animals and sometimes fatal, but also they fail to accurately reflect human reactions and are not required by the FDA. The primary reason why animal testing should cease to exist is because it is inhumane to strip a helpless animal of its rights for the benefit of experimentation and research. Animals have a basic moral right to respectful treatment . . .. This inherent value is not respected when animals are reduced to being mere tools in a scientific experiment.† (Lonestar) While animals cannot express themselves as humans can, they can feel, think, behave, and experience pain. Their inability to express themselves should not be taken advantage of. While the FDA encourages manufacturers to conduct whatever testing is necessary to ensure the safety of their products, it does not specifically require the use of animals. (FDA) The FDA actually encourages companies to consider alternatives before deciding that testing on animals is necessary. They advocate that research and testing for products use a maximum amount of useful scientific information and a minimal number of animals tested. When testing does occur, they advocate for the most humane methods available. The Food and Drug Administration supports the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy of Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. If companies are not required by the FDA to test their products on animals, there is no reason that it should be a method that is resorted to for experimentation. Not only is animal testing morally incorrect, but it is also not the most effective method to conduct research on products to be used by humans. In fact, 92 percent of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail to tell us that they are too dangerous or ineffective on humans. (Do Something) When conducting an experiment for safety and efficacy on animals, the purpose is to try the product on a living system before exposing it to a human. But the complicated living system of a human being barely compares to that of a helpless small animal. For example Aspirin and chocolate are harmful to cats and dogs while they remain completely unharmful to humans. There are many alternatives that can be used in place for testing on animals. â€Å"Alternative† tests are those that meet one or more of the standards of the â€Å"three R’s: They replace procedures that uses animals with one that doesn’t, reduce the number of animals used in the procedure, or refine a procedure to alleviate or minimize potential animal pain. (DoSomething) While not all of the ‘R’s’ are a complete solution to animal testing, putting any of the three in place would make a significant impact on the lives of many animals. As citizens and consumers, there are ways that we can stand up for the cause of the animals being tested. Many animals are harmed in the process of experimentation for educational purposes. We can demand that our alma maters stop using animals for this purpose. Buying cruelty-free products is something that can be done as a consumer to take away business from companies that test their products on animals. We can make sure that when donating to charities, we choose those that dont experiment on animals. As citizens, we can request from our government legislation that requires alternatives to animal dissection and the immediate implementation of humane, effective non-animal tests. (PETA) Opponents would have you believe that it is okay for animals to be tested on so that humans and sometimes animals would suffer less in the future, however, â€Å"We should be concerned about how animals are treated in research, and [†¦] eliminate the number of animals who suffers† (ASPCA). Researchers are concerned only with their results and not the harmful process it takes to get them. It is clear that not only is animal testing cruel and necessary, but ineffective. However with alternatives to testing and strategies of protest, it’s possible for us to begin to diminish animal testing.

Strategic Management Process: Airtel

Strategic Management Process: Airtel Industry: Telecom The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world, with about 19 million additions a month. The industry has witnessed consistent growth during the last year on the back of rollout of newer circles by operators, successful auction of third-generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, network rollout in semi-rural areas and increased focus on the value added services (VAS) market. there have been several new entrants in the markets lately. This has led to ever lowering tariffs and a decrease in the revenue of existing players. Fresh acquisition of customers is no longer a guarantee to increase in revenue. Consequently, in addition to the lower calling rates, the operators have been forced to provide a host of value added and auxiliary services. To retain its leadership position, Airtel is already leading the way in areas of mobile commerce, banking etc. As the Indian telecom industry enters its third phase, growth in the markets is bound to mirror the growth in the economy. This provides valuable pointers to the next driver of growth the rural India where mobile penetration levels still remain an abysmal 15%. Airtel has been looking to expand and learn in the rural/low income market segment. Airtel has already ventured into providing mobile financial services, mobile money transfers to customers in rural areas, further leveraging its existing base of cellular subscribers. Vision and Mission Vision By 2015, Airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions. Mission We will meet the  mobile  communication  needs of our  customer through   error-free service delivery Innovative Product and Service Cost efficiency Unified messaging solution Objectives/Goals To undertake transformational projects that have a positive impact on society and contribute to the nation building process To diversify into new businesses in agriculture, financial services and retail business with world class partners To lay the foundation for building a conglomerate for future. Environment Analysis Porters Five Forces (Cellular Services) 1. Threat of new entrants MEDIUM TRAI has been following a liberal regulatory regime to encourage greater competition with better quality and affordable prices The government presently allows FDI of 76% in the sector, encouraging foreign players to enter the Indian market. Heavy capex requirements and strict licensing policy hinders entry 2. Bargaining Power of buyers VERY HIGH Lack of product differentiation- There are short term gains that one player may have from innovation/ first mover advantage into a new value added service Extremely low switching costs in moving from 1 service provider to another Multiple service providers- very wide variety of choice for the customers. Competitive landscape implies consistently better offers and deals for customers. 3. Bargaining power of suppliers VERY LOW Airtel outsources most of its operations. Since contracts are allocated to the highest bidder, Airtel only looks at getting the best deal. This mechanism provides Airtel with a high degree of flexibility. For eg. Network outsourcing/maintenance partners: Ericsson(15 circles), Siemens(7 circles), Huawei., IT system partner: IBM, Tower maintenance and other infrastructure: Bharti Infratel and Indus towers. 4. Pressure from substitutes HIGH The communications space is very dynamic with new technology (3G and 4G) and products flooding the market. Mobile services are competing with products such as, Wired-lines ,CDMA, Video telephony, Tata/ Reliance- Walky phones, Internet telephony- Skype, google, fring etc, VSAT phones.Additionally, data services on cellular phones have become an essential product feature. On this front, mobile services face a significant threat from local ISPs, broadband service, leased lines, Blackberry and iPad. 5. Current Rivalry MEDIUM-HIGH Airtel is the current market leader in the mobile service (GSM) sector with 31% market share. Vodafone, BSNL, Idea are its major competitors. Competitive Advantage Airtel has the following competitive advantages: Strategic alliances: Acquisitions and JVs Airtel has been entering into various JVs and acquisitions to increase its footprint as well as global presence. The firm has stake in JT mobiles, Sky Cell etc. With the acquisition of Zain and other players, Airtel has used this strategy effectively to become a global player Outsourcing: Airtel has a clear outsourcing strategy. It outsources all its functions except marketing, sales and finance; this has helped the firm focus on its core competencies. Further due to its market leadership position and volume of its operations, there are multiple bidders; which has ensured high quality service/products for Airtel Supplier Relationships Airtel has strong relationships with its suppliers. It relies on Bharti Infratel for towers, IBM for IT systems etc. It is able to sustain its innovative business model ,by focusing on relationship management with vendors International Presence Airtels global presence and deep pockets are a source of competitive advantage for the firm. Value Chain Analysis The traditional mobile industry value chain basically involved the mobile operator, service provider, device manufacturer and the customer. However the mobile services industry is rapidly evolving with value added services, data services etc. gaining significance. These are a very profitable revenue stream for the service provider. For example in the value added services segment, the network operator keeps about 60% of revenue, the technology/software developer retains about 25%, while the content provider gets about 20% of the revenue from value added services (Source: IMRB Research). With M-Commerce contents becoming increasingly important in the value chain, it is seen that the operator share in the value chain has been declining. Airtel has been tying up with entertainment providers, FMCGs, insurance companies to maintain a share in the value chain. From a strategy perspective, this should be one of the focus areas for Airtel. Business Level Strategy Airtel cellular service follows a cost leadership strategy. The market focus is broad- with the firm catering to 137 million customers as of FY10. Further, since differentiation is very short lived and immediately imitated by competitors; firms attempt to maintain a cost advantage over their competitors. Airtel has maintained its cost leadership by reducing its operational costs and its unique business model- which outsources all major functions except, sales, marketing and finance. Differentiation is also attempted with the help of value added services. While there are several player in the market, including the new entrants, Bharti-Airtel, Rcom and BSNL are the only players to gain a differential advantage on the account of existing infrastructural capability. Differentiation Focused differentiation Cost leadership- AIRTEL CELLULAR Focused Cost Integrated Competitive Scope Narrow Broad Source of competitive advantage Differentiation Cost Corporate Level Strategy Bharti Airtel has been divided into distinct business units, as follows: The Mobile Services division is probably the most valuable division of Bharti Airtel. Airtel offers GSM mobile services in all the 23-telecom circles of India and is the largest mobile service provider in the country, based on the number of customers. It provides numerous value added services such as mobile apps, hello tunes, m-commerce, wireless internet etc. The Airtel Telemedia Services division provides high speed broadband internet and related services. It also provides landline service in 93 cities across India. It also launched its DTH services in 2008 and is present in more than 150 cities now. The Enterprise Services division provides a diverse portfolio of services to large Enterprise and Carrier customers. This division is further divided into two unite: Carrier business unit and Corporate business unit. The Corporate Business Unit provides end to end telecom solutions to Indias large corporate. It specializes in providing customized solutions to address the unique requirements of different industry verticals. The Carrier Business Unit provides long distance wholesale voice and data services to carrier customers as well as to other business units of Airtel. It is present in significant capacity in the International arena as well. Differentiation Focused differentiation Cost leadership- AIRTEL CELLULAR Focused Cost Integrated Competitive Scope Narrow Broad Source of competitive advantage Differentiation Cost The Digital TV Services provides customers with a unique TV viewing experience with a wide variety of channels and programmes and with the on-demand content on Airtel Live. The international business group deals with all of Airtels operations outside India and South Asia. Bharti Airtel has comparatively low levels of diversification, and it follows a Dominant Business strategy. The second quarter financials of Airtel show that its mobile services division had a gross revenue of Rs. 8099 crore, which is roughly 82% of its total revenue of Rs. 9846 crore. Thus its mobile services division is its dominant business. The reasons for Airtel to diversify are purely based on value creation. As all its divisions focus mainly on telecommunication and related technologies, the transfer of core competencies becomes much easier and much more useful. Moreover sharing activities and resources, especially technological knowledge, is very helpful and creates a positive synergy for Airtel. It also gives Airtel to increase its market power by engaging in multipoint competition with competitors such as Tata. Further it provides efficient internal capital allocation opportunities to airtel, as the retained earnings from its hugely profitable Mobile services can be put to good use in other divisions. Value creation through diversification Airtel seeks to create value through diversification by moving across businesses that share both operational and corporate relatedness. With this approach, it expects to achieve high resource sharing and consequently, significant cost reduction. It looks at operational relatedness since a number of its businesses operate across similar technologies and thus the platform for a given product can be used directly for extending the service from a completely new product. As an example, the cables for a telephone connection provided by Airtel can be used to provide broadband service to the customer without any significant change in infrastructure. The skills required from the technicians are also not very different and thus economies of scale are quite possible. The same logic can be extended to exploring the corporate relatedness. All the diversified businesses require similar managerial and technical expertise as can be seen in the example provided above. In pursuing this strategy, Airtel will have to be conscious of the fact that it can lead to diseconomies of scope. This can arise primarily from the very factor which Airtel is banking on similarity across its businesses. A wrong move in any one of the businesses can spill over to its other business and cause repercussions even in the short term. This is the very reason that the organization cannot afford to go easy on any of its domains and needs to keep up to speed in all its businesses. International Strategy Today Bharti Airtel operates in 19 countries throughout the world. Apart from being the largest cellular service provider in India, it is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world. It has about 207.8 million subscribers worldwide 152.5 million in India, 50.3 million are in Africa. This has helped Airtel to increase its global market share and revenues significantly. International Business Level Strategy We will view this in further detail using Porters Determinants of National Advantage model: It is worth noticing here that after the Indian subcontinent, Airtels main region of operation is Africa. It is possible that the company found it attractive to enter Africa because due to its economic conditions, countries there would be lacking in necessary factors of production. Domestic companies in Africa would be lacking in technological resources, human resources, and capital necessary in the telecommunications sector. On the other hand, there is no lack of such resources in India. This is one of the major reasons why Airtel chose to expand there. Although the demand for services provided by Airtel is increasing at a rapid pace in India, there is still a lot of competition and the demand is smoothing out slowly. To further increase its revenues and market share Airtel has to expand to other nations as well. Due to the lack of existence of bare minimum infrastructure in Africa and the slow but steady increase in its economic well being, the demand conditions over there should be very high. The related and supporting industries are also very competitive and there are a lot of players in the telecommunication sector, like Vodafone, BSNL and Reliance. International Corporate Level Strategy The business of Airtel has been divided into two units based on geography. Need for cost responsiveness There are three basic international corporate level strategies availaible to any firm: Need for local responsiveness Airtel has always made it a point to focus on the needs of customers and provide solutions to customers according to their requirements. For example, the mobile services that they offer vary even among the different states of India according to customers preferences. Similarly, the kind of services, offers, plans and value addition that they offer in India is very different than what they offer in other nations. For Airtel, need to address local responsiveness has always been of the utmost importance. On the other hand, the need for global integration is not very high. The two business groups, as shown above, are distinct from each other. Due to the lack of proximity of the locations where Airtel operates, and other strategic factors, it is best for Airtel to have low levels of global integration. Keeping the above points in mind, it is clear that Airtel follows a multidomestic strategy. Organizational Structure Bharti Airtel follows an integrated structure responsible for all aspects of its telecom business in India. Significant reorganization took place in October 2006 in line with the vision of making Airtel, the most admired brand in India by 2010. As quoted by their president, it is their endeavor to build an integrated business, leading to higher synergies efficiencies and creating an organization that has a truly national character in every aspect of business operations. The present structure marks the transition of Airtel towards a customer focused organization while building sustainability scalability to seamlessly manage 100 million customers and beyond. The new organization has been designed to enable strong corporate governance whilst ensuring operational freedom, through functional matrix reporting relationships. Actual Structure Bharti Airtel is structured into four strategic business units Mobile services, Broadband Telephone (BT) services, Enterprise services and DTH services. The mobile business provides mobile fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles. The BT business provides broadband telephone services in 94 cities. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. The top level management of Airtel across its four divisions is as shown in the following figure. In the case of Airtel, a matrix organization structure introduces, or at least recognizes, the real life complexity of a business environment. Geography, function, technology, business unit and technology (among others) are the important factors that are recognized in the matrix organizations structure. However, the above mentioned structure also introduces a higher level of internal complexity and some additional people management challenges, so there must be significant advantages that are seen by the organization that outweigh the matrix people management challenges. Matrix organization structures were initially introduced in complex projects such as the airspace industry to cope with complex projects. Since then a number of organizations, often prompted by large strategy consultancies, have adopted or altered the matrix organization structure to help deal with internal and external complexity. In the following figure, a sample matrix organizational structure is shown. In the case of Airtel, the project manager refers to the managers of the different services provided by Airtel across its divisions. It is clear that this allows for sharing of resources across the various projects. At its simplest the matrix organization structure just reflects this external complexity in the internal structure. Airtel is a brand that is aiming for a global presence and realizes that geography is important but so are function, customer grouping, product and technology. Basically, a matrix organization structure is an acknowledgment of the notion that since it is improbable to specify the weightage of importance that can be attributed to these factors, there is a need to allow a structure that is flexible and permits balancing and prioritizing on a daily basis between the various divisions. Thus there is a conscious trade-off for clarity in return for more flexibility. An important issue to consider here is that while the organization structure itself is a good fit for Airtel, a lot of emphasis needs to be laid on the successful coordination of the people and their skill sets within the organization. Advantages As a synopsis, the advantages reaped by Airtel as a result of its organizational structure include: Improved resource accessibility across the old functional and geographic silos. Effective coordination on shared technologies across the organization (extended to a global level) Decentralization of management decisions Improved access to a diverse range of skills and perspectives. increased communication and coordination across the business Flexible as per the needs of global or regional customers Structural Issues Dual reporting structures run a risk of initiating power struggles. Dual lines of authority in the matrix often create power struggles between the vertical and lateral forces as each tries to secure member loyalty and budget rupees. Teams may develop groupitis, the matrix depends on team functioning, there may be an overdependence on group decision-making even where it is unnecessary. This can slow down projects and further be a point of frustration for people managers. It is a widely acknowledged fact that the matrix structure increases administrative overhead, it also ideally suits the progressive development of new ideas into projects. However, when a slump hits, one common tendency is to discard the matrix in favor of more traditional approaches. The matrix can become a scapegoat for inefficiencies. Decision strangulation matrix organizational structures legitimize multiple information flows throughout the organization, creating the danger that too much information will be processed before a decision will be made. Some project managers may feel compelled to check with everyone on every project decision. Corporate Governance Corporate Governance is a set of mechanisms used to manage their relationship among stakeholders and to determine and control the strategic direction and performance of organisations. An organisation is owned by its shareholders but is managed by the ownership (Principal Agent Issues). Many a times the decisions taken by the management may not be in the best interests of the shareholders and thus Agency costs arise. To ensure that such a scenario does not arise it is essential for the firm to have strong corporate governance tools. Bharti  Airtel limited firmly believes in the principles of Corporate Governance and is committed to conduct its business in a manner, which will ensure sustainable, capital-efficient and long-term growth thereby maximising value for its shareholders, customers, employees and society at large. Companys policies are in line with Corporate Governance guidelines prescribed under Listing Agreement/s with Stock Exchanges and the Company ensures that various disclosures requirements are complied in letter and spirit for effective Corporate Governance. As proof of the excellence of Bharti Airtel in the Corporate Governance it has been Rated Level 1 by CRISIL which is the highest Governance and Value Creation rating (GVC). One way to ensure strong corporate governance is by having independent directors on the board of Directors. Their sole purpose is to ensure that the decisions taken by the management are in the best interests of the shareholders. In order to ensure that this corporate governance tool is a sound check, Airtel has ensured the following: The board has 2 executive members and 14 non executive members. 50% of the members of the board are independent directors which is a good sign of corporate governance. The board meets regularly outside the presence of management. The chairman of the board is not the CEO or a former CEO of the firm. Else it may impair the ability and willingness of independent board members to express opinions contrary to those of management. Independent board members have a primary or leading board member in cases where the chairman is not independent. Board members are not closely aligned with a firm supplier, customer, share-option plan or pension advisor. This may lead to a conflict of interest scenario. Another suitable means of aligning the interests of the shareholders with that of the management is by means of changing the structure of executive compensation. Having parameters such as stock options as part of the pay will ensure that management will take decisions that benefit both the stockholders as well as themselves indirectly. This a strategy that is used extensively at Airtel particularly as far as the top management compensation goes. Other Corporate Governance Initiatives taken by Airtel are Shareholders Board of Directors Audit Committee Managing Director HR/ Remuneration Management Operations ESOP Compensation Investor Grievance Corporate Governance Mechanisms at Airtel Audit Committee Six members, two-third of which is independent directors. At least four times a year. (Max time gap 4 months) The Committee Chairman shall attend the Annual General Meeting. To ensure that the financial statements are true and accurate and provide sufficient information. Recommending to the Board, the appointment, re-appointment and, if required, the replacement or removal of the statutory auditor and the fixation of their audit fees. Human Resource (HR)/ Remuneration Committee Six non-executive directors, out of which four members including the chairman are independent directors. Attraction and Retention strategies for employees. Employees Development Strategies. Compensation All Human Resources related issue. ESOP Compensation Committee Constituted in accordance with SEBI Guidelines, 1999. Six members of whom four are independent and all are non-executive Formulate ESOP plans and decide on future grants. Formulate terms and conditions Employee Stock Option Schemes of the Company Investor Grievance Committee Constituted in accordance with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement. Four members of whom three members including the Chairman, are non-executive directors Ensure speedy disposal of various requests received from shareholders from time to time (within 7-10 days from the date of receipt of complaint). Redressal of shareholders and investor complaints/ grievances. Monthly meeting The above detailed initiatives clearly point towards the importance that Airtel gives to Corporate Governance and this is further reaffirmed by Level 1 rating for GVC by CRISIL again in 2006. Organizational Controls They guide the use of strategy, indicate how to compare actual results with expected results and suggest corrective measures when the difference is unacceptable. It is an important part of the organisational structure and its key to a firms plans to exploit its core competencies. The organisational controls can be broadly classified as Strategic control: It is used to determine the fit between what a firm might possibly do on the basis of opportunities in the environment and what it can do on the basis of its core competencies and competitive advantages. In other words, the process of evaluating strategy, is practiced both after the strategy is formulated and after it is implemented Financial controls: They are used to measure the performance of the firm against set thresholds and analyse the reasons for being unable to meet them if the case by. Such controls generally include measures like Return on Investment (RoI), Return on Assets (RoA). Management control: It focuses on the accomplishment of the objectives of the various sub strategies comprising the master strategy and the accomplishment of the objectives of the intermediate plans. Operational control: It is concerned individual and group performance as compared with the individual and group role prescriptions required by organizational plans. Each of these types of control is not a separate and distinct entity and, in fact, may be indistinguishable from others. Moreover, similar measurement techniques may be used for each type of control. While both Financial and strategic controls are important the extent of importance accorded to each is determined by the firm strategy. Airtel which is following a cost leadership strategy focuses more on financial controls more than strategic ones. However a firm should not get too carried away along just one set of controls as that would hurt the long term sustainability. So if a firm focuses just on strategic controls while giving a cold shoulder to financial ones, it may soon face a scenario wherein it will run out of cash. The organizational control to a very large extent is determined by the Organisation Structure. Recommendations Considering the heavy fragmentation of the Indian mobile market, we propose the following recommendations so as to ensure that Airtel continues to be the market leader in this domain. As the above figure suggests, there has been a heavy influx of new players in this arena of late which has seen the market share of Airtel fall from above 50 % to about 30 % in half a decade. This means that Airtel should look at hereto untapped markets specially in developing countries with low penetration. Thus following the Multi Domestic strategy more aggressively is crucial to continued success Moreover the ARPU (Average Revenue per User) in India is pretty low. Thus more acquisitions like that of Zain telecom (ARPU of $55 vs Bharti ARPU $7) makes sense. There is no point in proliferating the number of subscribers if Airtel cannot charge them at competitive prices Since the competition in India has intensified, most players are engaging a price war which can be deleterious to the companys short term prospects. Herein Airtel should leverage its strong network and brand equity and not engage in a price war and try in move towards an integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy. The urban market penetration is about 95 % and hence the only way of expanding revenues from this stream is by introducing quality VAS (Value Added Services). These give high margin services and are going to be in much greater demand as the smart phone market swells. Entry and quality innovations into this niche domain (presently) would give it a big first movers advantage. Forging strategic alliances with mobile phone manufacturers specially those of high end handsets will be a great way to tap the premium segment. This segment often has very high usage and contributes significantly to the revenue stream. By locking them in with Airtel at the point of purchase itself, Airtel guarantees itself a long customer lifetime value. Also given the economic spurt, many such players have expressed their keen interest to enter the Indian markets.

Ronald Reagan :: essays research papers

Introduction Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1911- ),the 40th president of the United States (1981-1989), enforced the policies that reversed a general direction of movement toward greater government involvement in economic and social regulation. Reagan as the younger of two sons, was born in Tampico, Illinois and spent most of his childhood in Dixon, Illinois. After studying at Eureka College,a small Disciples of Christ college near Peoria, Illinois, he majored in economics, and became the president of the student body, a member of the football team, and captain of the swimming team. He had special drawings toward acting, but after the graduation in 1932 the only job available related to show business was as a local radio sportscaster. In 1936 he became a sportscaster for station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. A year latter, Reagan went to Hollywood and began an acting career that spanned more than 25 years. He played in more than 50 films, including "Knute Rockne"-All American (1940), & quot;King's Row" (1942), and "Bedtime for Bonzo" (1951). Early political career Reagan's first political activities were associated with his responsibilities as a union leader. As union president, Reagan tried to remove suspected Communists from the movie industry. When the U.S. House Committee. Began an investigation in 1947 on the influence of Communists in the film industry, Reagan took a strong anti-Communist stand testifying before the committee. Reagan emerged on the national political scene in 1964 when he made fervent television speech supports for the Republican presidential candidate, United States Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona. Although the election was lost, Reagan's speech brought in money and admiration from Republicans around the country. After the speech a group of Republicans in California persuaded Reagan to run for governor of California in 1966. Reagan appealed to traditional Republican voters. He defeated Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, Sr., Democra t, by almost a million votes. The election of 1980 Reagan spent years making political friends at party fund-raising dinners around the country. In the election of 1980 for the president, the candidates were Carter and Reagan. The contrast between the television personalities of two candidates was very important to people. Carter’s nervous manner had never been popular to people, while Reagan’s charm and happy face was a call for return to patriotism, which appealed to the public. Many voters believed that Reagan was forceful leader who could get their lives in shape and who could restore prosperity at home.

To Legalize, or Not to Legalize Gay Marriage Essay -- Homosexuality

Since the beginning of time, Homo sapiens have discriminated against people with differences such as color of skin, religion, politics, and more. Over the years, society has changed to accept these differences, yet Americans still ostracize the gay community as if they were less than human. Currently one specific controversy comes to mind in consideration of gays, and that is gay marriage. The controversies surrounding gay marriage include the legal, religious, and philosophical problems that allowing gay marriage could cause. The United States currently does not recognize gay partnerships as legal marriages, and therefore when gay partners file for a tax refund both partners must mark single for the type of relationship. Though the United States federally does not allow homosexual marriages, states like Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington, Iowa, New York, and New Hampshire allow such marriages, and even more states recognize civil unions such as Illinois California, Co lorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. With these states bringing more attention to gay marriage, the debate over this right has come to the forefront of the 2012 presidential campaign. The definition of marriage is traditionally between a man and a woman which is why the anti-gay marriage groups protest the concept of having two men or two women marry. Research shows that those opposed to gay marriage have used the costs associated with benefits, as well as religious and secular philosophical concerns as points on their flawed platform. When the opposition cites their platform, the legal aspect, including money, is one of the points. The opposition cites a study done in New York ... .... PinkNews, 7 Mar. 2012. Web. 15 May 2012. . "Homosexuality and Buddhism." - ReligionFacts. ReligionFacts. Web. 15 May 2012. Leviticus. Leviticus Chapter 18. King James Bible Online, 2012. Web. 16 May 2012. Mustanski, Brian. "The Sexual Continuum." Why Not Allow Gay Marriage? Sussex Directories, Inc., 28 Nov. 2008. Web. 15 May 2012. Peters, Jeremy W. "Would Gay Marriage Help the State Economy?" City Room. NYtimes.com, 26 Mar. 2009. Web. 15 May 2012. Sterling, Toby. "The Global View Of Gay Marriage." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 05 Dec. 2007. Web. 15 May 2012. "Suicide Prevention." Warning Signs of Suicide. The Trevor Project. Web. 15 May 2012. "The Catholic Church, Homosexuality and Gay Marriage." The Catholic Church, Homosexuality and Gay Marriage. Catholic News Service. Web. 15 May 2012.

Assault on Precinct 13 Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"Assault on Precinct 13† marks the return of the R-rated action movie. It is the dark and savvy remake of John Carpenter’s 1976 cult classic of the same name, which in turn was inspired by Howard Hawks’ 1959 Rio Bravo. French Director Francois Richet’s American filmmaking debut has done right by the cult favorite about a ragtag group of cops and criminals trapped in a police station. The thrill of this dark action flick is rightly focused on the characters, eerie setting, and tons of stripped down action and gunplay that truly brings this old school throw-down to life. The driving force of the film lies within the chemistry of the ensemble cast. In â€Å"Precinct 13† there is a fine line between the good-guys and the bad-guys, as the cops and criminals have to team up against more cops who are in fact, the bad-guys. Ethan Hawke plays Jake Roenick, a young sergeant battling the demons of his past, who is forced to team up with Bishop, a local crime lord and cop killer who is masterfully portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. Also, John Leguizamo gives a scene-stealing performance as Beck, the paranoid but articulate junkie. Platinum selling rapper Ja Rule adds a few laughs as Smiley, the counterfeiter; and actress Drea de Matteo adds a touch of sexiness to the dark film. As for the antagonist, Gabriel Byrne gives his usual grim performance as Marcus Duvall, the crooked head of Detroit’s racketeering and organized crime department out to kill everyone inside of Precinct 13. Although, ...

Microsoft Office †Its uses and the tools I like

Microsoft office includes many tools but the ones I will focus today are parts of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.Excel is a database application that helps crunch numbers and this is an application that will help me immensely in my career. The tool in this application I want to use in my professional life is VLOOKUP. Most organizations have lots of information, but finding that information is always a challenge, an even greater challenge is to compile this information into one single database. This is where VLOOKUP comes in.An example would be to assess the attendance of the whole organization. The sales team will have the employees filed by employee codes while the operations team might have the employees filed by attendance codes. If one has to find the leaves for employees from both these departments, we need to ask that information from the Human Resources department.They usually have all the codes for the employees and we can then use VLOOKUP to find out the employee c ode and the attendance code for each employee in the company. VLOOKUP matches a value in sheet 1 to that value in sheet 2 and gives a corresponding value in that row – all this can be set up. This function is especially useful to compile data – remember you always need to compile data before you analyze it and reach conclusions.The next tool I would like to use it transitions in PowerPoint, this is mainly for presentation purposes and I will use this tool to make cards, share pictures, movies etc of different events in my life. These could be the birthdays of children, vacations and other things, I have a couple of close friends and our family is close to one another, tools like transitions etc help make the experience of sharing pictures and movies fun and interesting.I know there are a lot of other tools in Microsoft Office that can be used in our professional and personal life, but the ones I mentioned above are the ones that I feel are the most practical, easy to u se and useful features.

American civil revised

American civil war of 1861-1865 was the bloodiest war. The fight was between United States (the Union) and the Southern eleven slave states that proclaimed that they had their own rights to secession, thus, forming Confederate states of America which was headed by Jefferson Davis as the President. The United States termed as the Union was made up of Free States together with Border States that were under President Abraham Lincoln lead by the Republican Party. The republicans were against the spreading of slavery into regions governed by the United States (the Union); this increased the desires of secession by the Southern states.Nevertheless, the republicans refused to accept any secession rights from the Southern states. This then led to the civil war which broke up on April of 1861, when Southern States forces attacked a military installation of United States (union) located at Fort Sumter, in the South of Carolina, which was the very first state to secede. (Holt, 1978) Causes of t he civil war Many historians argue that the civil war was caused by slavery issues. However, there is no one simple cause of the civil war.The war was caused by complex issues including slavery, party politics, and sectionalism, misunderstandings of federalism, expansionism, economical differences and modernization during that period. All this issues contributed to the war. (Holt, 1978) Slavery Slavery is considered by many historians as the main issue that caused the war; other reasons were directly or indirectly related to slavery. Historian Holt (1978), said, as the 1850s went on, an exacerbating, exhaustive and basically pointless conflict about slavery continued to be the main topic excluding all other issues.As Abraham Lincoln a Northern politician by then pointed out, the issue of slavery was the most important issue than other issues, he further states that â€Å"indeed, so much more important has it become that no other national question can even get a hearing just at pres ent. † (Holt, 1978) The issue of slavery was in relation to competition by sections or states for the control of territories. The demand of the Southern states for a code of slave in the territories was an issue being used by the Southern politicians to divide the Democratic Party in to two. The division of Democratic Party ensured the election of Lincoln and also the secession.Though, Abraham Lincoln did not have immediate plans of abolishing slavery in the South, the Southerners all over the South conveyed fears about the slavery future in the South the moment Lincoln took over, leading to tensions that lead to war. (Holt, 1978) The Southerners were also concerned about economic loss and racial equality that they may loss. In accordance to the Texas Declaration of Causes for Secession, declared that those states that were not holding salves were proclaiming the degrading doctrine that all men were equal irrespective of color or race.According to this declaration, African peo ple were an inferior race. This issue of slavery contributed a lot to the civil war, the Southern states feared losing control of slavery to the federal government. On the hand the Union feared that the power of slavery was already controlling the government. This led to the civil crisis of 1850s. States disagreements about the moral issue of slavery; extent of democracy and the debate about economics of slave plantations labor over free labor caused political unrest in the states.This contributed to the Southern secession which triggered the civil war. (Levine, 1992) Political instability Political instability during that time was so fractured; this contributed a lot to the civil war. Cultural and economic disparities contributed to widen the political differences. Wars between the north and the south grew a lot more heated, particularly after 1850. Politicians and the judiciary of the two regions sent contradictory signals in trying to appease each other. However, all the two part ies were not satisfied.The Georgians (Southerners) felt that the Federal government which was mainly controlled by the Northern industrialists was not responding to their problems in their states. Thus, the Southern states started seceding, this could not be allowed by the Northern states led by President Lincoln. As a result the Southern states opted to use force by attacking the military installation of the United States (the union) the United States (Union) responded and the war began. Therefore, political instability was another cause for the American civil war. (Holt, 1978) Modernization fears by SouthernAnother cause of war was fear of modernization by the south, According to historian’s Foner (1970), when the North abolished slavery and started industrial revolution which resulted to urbanization, improved education and reform activities like abolitionism, the truth that out of eight immigrants seven settled in the North, added to the truth that the number of whites le aving South for North were twice as those leaving North to South, this contributed to aggressive- defensive political activities of the South. These political animosities enhanced the prevailing tensions between the two parts culminating in the civil war.(Foner, 1970) Other historians argue that, people who owned slaves were the highly modernized people in the South. Traditional people were the ones and this group included the middle class whites who had no slave or owned a few number of slaves. The South common people struggled for secession as they believed in a slogan of â€Å"freedom is not possible without slavery† they also believed that slavery led to social equality between whites. On the other hand the Northerners particularly the republicans did have a varied interpretation of the principle of 1776.This varied ideology is among the main causes of tensions between the Southern states and the Northern states and is among the many reason why the two regions had to figh t the civil war. (Foner, 1970) States’ rights The rights of states was another issue that contributed to the war, Debate on if the Union was the one older than states or the other way opposite fueled the on going debate on rights of states. The debate was on if the federal government was should have a lot of power over states or if the federation was just made up of sovereign states that had more powers than the federal, this argument added to the on going controversy.According to Stampp (1956), each part used rights of states arguments to their convenient position and changed positions when not convenient. Stampp (1956) points out that, Vice President Alexander Stephens of the South confederate as one example of the Southern states leader who termed slavery as â€Å"cornerstone of the confederacy† at the beginning of the war. The Vice President further said that, civil war was not in regard to slavery; it was about states rights when the Southern states were defeated. Thus, the issue of states rights created a lot of controversies that were among the many causes of the civil war. (Stampp, 1956) Who or what was to â€Å"blame† for the Civil War What to blame; Slavery The questions remains was the war about slavery? The answer is yes. So slavery was to blame for the war. Supposing that there was no slavery then the war could not have happened. Or supposing that, there was no disagreement about slavery issue, the South probably would not have felt that their culture was being threatened, and the Southern politician would not have sought to protect their â€Å"rights to secede.† (Stampp 1956) However, the war was not only about slavery it was also about the constitutional rights of the states, if it had powers to leave the Union. Though, the North never went to the war to stop slavery, nor did president Abraham Lincoln have an agenda of stopping the war ones he became president, it is clear the differences in understanding of the slaver y issue was a major contribution to the civil war. Being moral issue slavery caused division in political leaders of the South and the North and created the tensions that existed by then leading to the war.(Stampp, 1956) Who to blame; Politicians The main blame of the war goes to the politicians who were political leaders on both sides of the North and the South. The South depended on economic system that relied heavily on slavery, their leaders such as William Lowders Yancey of Alabama and Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina who was known as â€Å"fire eaters† knew that supposing the South lost its slaves, then, it would undergo hard social and economic effects that will ultimately break the economy of the South.(Stampp, 1956) Hence, any political activities that threatened the end of slavery in the South received the whole attention of political leaders of the South many of whom owned slaves and who were ready to go for war to ensure that their â€Å"rights† were protected. These political leaders were able to influence many Southerners that it was important to fight, in convincing the people their mainly justified the war by arguments which indirectly referred to slavery issue. The politicians of the North states were divided concerning the slavery issue and did not intended to go on war over that issue.However, they took a political stand of fighting when war came, similarly they can also be blamed for the war. (Stampp, 1956) Could the war be avoided? Ever since the end of the American war, there have been arguments on whether the war was inevitable or could be avoided. The question illicit different answers according to the perspective one is looking the issue from. The war was inevitable and was bound to happen. This is because the ideologies being held by the South and the North were different.In a situation where political differences are so pronounced it becomes hard for the two opposing sides to solve their differences amicable. Bas ing in mind that, what was at stake was a lot; economic consideration, freedom, democracy and the issue of slavery it could have been hard to avoid the war. In addition the politicians especially from the south felt threaten and had to assert the power. Basically unless there was change of ideology on either side war was inevitable. Conclusion The civil war of America basically occurred because of differences in political ideology brought about by slavery.Slavery was a moral and economical issue that created a big rift between the Southern states and the United States (union). Before the war, fractured political system resulted in widening of the rift. Another reason that caused the war was the need of states to have more freedom by seceding from the federation this coupled with other complex issues especially economic ones were the major reason why the war occurred. In addition politicians particularly from the South who felt that their culture was being threaten also contributed a lot to the war.As mention before slavery was the main cause of this who as one historian puts it â€Å"without slavery there would not have been a civil war. † (Stampp, 1956) Though, the war resulted in a lot of loss of life, damages and injuries, it greatly helped to correct the historical mistake of slavery and to emancipate the slaves, and bring equality and freedom to many slaves. References Foner, E (1970); Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men; Oxford press Holt, M. F. (1978): Political Crisis of the 1850s; Wiley, Levine, B (1992). Half Slave and Half Free; Hill and Wang, Stampp, K (1956): Peculiar Institution. Knopf